Brian Cox on quantum computing and black hole physics

**We might be living inside a cosmic hologram.**

At the cutting edge of physics and engineering lies a baffling truth: quantum computers and black holes might share the same secrets about how information is stored. Unlike classical computers that rely on copies for error correction, quantum memory is fragile—any touch from the environment can erase it. Engineers are now creating systems that *protect* data using redundancy, eerily similar to how nature encodes reality itself.

Decades ago, physicist Jacob Bekenstein discovered that a black hole’s information capacity is determined not by its volume, but by the *surface area* of its event horizon—measured in minuscule square Planck units. This shocking revelation hints at a deeper truth: **the universe might function like a hologram**, with the true data of our 3D world encoded on a distant 2D boundary.

Juan Maldacena’s mathematical work adds fuel to this idea: a complete quantum description of gravity inside a space might actually *live on its boundary*. This isn't science fiction—it's one of the most radical frontiers in modern physics. We don't fully understand it yet. No one does. But we’re catching glimpses of a universe built not from space and time—but from information itself.

**Could our reality be encoded like a quantum memory system—resilient, redundant, and ultimately... Holographic?**

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